Kodlix GN41 Intel Windows 10 Mini PC with Android X86 Compatibility

Kodlix GN41 Intel Windows 10 Mini PC Review

There is something very special about Windows mini PC’s like this Kodlix GN41 Windows 10 mini PC that most people don’t know about. First of all this mini PC is built on Intel hardware which means that this is a powerful little machine. It my not beat the performance of a regular size gaming desktop or laptop, but it can sure beat the hell out of Android TV box hardware like Amlogic and Rockchip. What if it was possible to run Android on Intel hardware, that would be like overkill and would result in a super Android TV box. Well with the Kodlix GN41 it is possible to enjoy Windows 10, and it is also possible to handle a full separate Android 8.1 Oreo operating system, separate from the internal storage of the Windows installation.

Intel Hardware

The Kodlix GN41 runs on the latest Intel Celeron Gemini Lake N4100 CPU with a base clock of 1.1 GHz and boost clock of 2.4GHz. It comes with 8GB of DDR4 RAM and 64GB of storage. It comes with a 2.5″ HDD/SDD expansion bay with maximum capacity of 256GB on the Windows operating system. It has AC3165 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4G + 5.8G WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. It comes with Ethernet LAN up to 1000Mbps.

IO Ports

1 HDMI 2.0

1 VGA 1 RJ45 LAN

1 Earphone jack

1 Reset button

2 USB 2.0

2 USB 3.0

1 USB Type C

1 Micro SD card reader

Operating System

The Kodlix GN41 runs on a licensed Windows 10 Professional 64bit edition. The Windows installation comes blank with no programs or apps installed. You are not restricted in any way and you can install Office applications, browse the web, play YouTube videos, play 4K videos, play Windows games, and all the things you would normally do on a Windows computer. However, keep in mind that this mini PC does not have power of a full gaming desktop of laptop, so mind very large games and applications in excess of 10GB that it may struggle to handle. The mini PC comes with a SATA expansion bay for additional storage up to 256GB. YouTube plays up to 8K quality, 4K HEVC 10bit UHD videos plays perfectly, and Netflix plays in HD and 4K quality.

Benchmarks High

Antutu – 145198

Geekbenck 4 – 1715 single-core / 4586 multi-core

Ice Storm Extreme – 21,687 Cloud Gate – 3403

RAM Copy speed – 8533 MB/s

ROM Speed – 239 MB/s Read / 238MB/s Write

WiFi Speed – MAX Speed on all bands and LAN 1000Mbps

Android X86 compatible

Something a lot of people aren’t aware of, is that mini PCs like the Kodlix GN41 that comes with a hard drive expansion bay comes with a bonus. And that is the ability to run an independent standalone second operating system of Android or Ubuntu or what ever operating system you like. Now this begs the question, how can you run an Android operating system on windows hardware, that is just going to have major compatibility issues. We have seen people run Android emulators on top of windows, and most of the time there were limitations.

Now there’s a whole community on the Internet that has been working behind the scenes developing a version of Android call Android X86. This version of Android is designed to run on windows hardware, hence the X86 which is the term used when relating to software compatibility with windows hardware. However, even though they have come a long way with their recent release of Android 8.1 Oreo X86. there is still work to be done to broaden the scope of compatible devices.

Final Thoughts

Well after taking this mini PC for a full ride, I must say that I love this mini PC, its performance and benchmarks are outstanding. 4K video playback is the best, now issues. Netflix in HD and 4K is very good. 3D gaming was very contrasting compared to an Android TV box the graphics stood out so much I forgot how much of a difference in quality Windows hardware produces. YouTube can play up to 8K quality on this mini PC. My pet project Android X86 worked better than expected on the SATA expansion bay, if you are going to attempt Android X86 on this mini PC remember to format the SSD or HDD partition in ext4 format to access the full hard drive space for your Android OS. You can use this mini PC as a full Android TV box using the Android X86 operating and install it separately onto a hard drive in expansion bay, what a feature.